Hope Is Local

None of my internet searches turned up the story.  But then I decided to search the tabs on my iPad and there it was, published in The Narwhal with this headline:  "It's the world's first Indigenous-led 'blue park.'  And Kitasoo Xai'xais Nation pulled it off without waiting on Canada."  It was featured in both of my good news newsletters because the United Nations has honoured the accomplishment as did the Marine Conservation Institute when it announced the Blue Park Award on April 17 in Athens, Greece.  Just let me quote:  "The 33.5-square kilometre Gitdisdzu Lugyeks Marine Protected Area on the central coast of British Columbia encompasses Kitasu Bay, an area rich with herring, shorebirds, whales, sea lions and juvenile fish.  The nation unilaterally declared a protected area in 2022 and began pursuing qualifications for blue park status shortly after." Elders appealed to the federal government for help protecting the area in the 1970s, fearing that it was being overfished, but the Feds kept putting off meetings, so they undertook it themselves. "In the circle of life, if you take out one thing--destroy something out of that circle of life--that will affect everybody," Chief Ernest Mason Jr. says.  So the Kitasoo Xai'xais Stewardship Authority and eight watchmen enforced the area's closure to commercial fishing, and commercial operators have been "largely respectful" of the limits imposed. Perhaps they understand that limits help the whole area, the whole ecosystem thrive.  The status quo won't. 

Let me just be kind for a moment and suggest that the Feds were looking elsewhere, were distracted, had bigger fish to fry.  (Sorry.)  Or perhaps I've gotten cynical and think that governments, in pursuit of yet another mandate, have forgotten how to do the right thing rather than the thing their base thinks is right--no matter how ill-informed that base is. So we lack the leadership to identify and solve the problems we can actually address. Can we afford to wait? 

It's why my neighbourhood created the Cathedral Village Forest Project and planted over three thousand trees and over a thousand fruiting shrubs along Wascana Creek in Les Sherman Park. They will cool and clean the air and will create a rich ecosystem around it. Local people know what the local resources are like--where there's space in the park and where volunteers are to be found.

In a time when the world seems to be self-destructing, when too little is being done about the climate crisis and wars are pushed over the top by vengeance or self-interest and little care for those who die, local is comprehensible.  Put some smart, disinterested heads together and you can probably find a creative solution, like the forest in Les Sherman Park or the innovative programs run by the Al Ritchie Community Association.  Neither of these are a fix for the climate crisis or for poverty, which needs to begin with good federal policies. At the same time, though, local solutions tend to be creative and responsive to local conditions. 

I spent a couple of hours with Denis Simard, who is the executive director of the Al Ritchie Community Association, the boots on the ground who realizes the Association's ideas.  Their main goal is to provide support and activities for people in North Central and to create a connective hub for the neighbourhood.  They run innovative programs like one for parents and children under 5. While the children are engaged in play by staff members, the parents are expected to hang around.  That sounds counter-intuitive, but Denis says that the parents are often frustrated by the fact that "there's no manual" for raising children. The parents' time during the play program tries to address that maddening fact of life.  They make connections with other parents and get to observe useful ways of engaging children.  The staff who take care of their children become resources and can provide insight into the kids or strategies for parents.  

Later in the day, kids come by after school for a safe, nonjudgmental space to hang out.  Often they arrive "hangry," or agitated, so the first thing is to "feed their faces," Denis says.  Funny how behavioural problems disappear when kids aren't hungry. The Association runs cooking classes for preteens and teens which are always full, simply because the kids, whose parents are often distracted or coping with difficult circumstances, often find themselves without a meal unless they can make it themselves.  The cooking school is going to try something different this fall:  having kids take a photograph of what's in their pantry or cupboards so that the classes can make use of things that are realistically found in their homes.

Al Ritchie Community Association runs stores that are open 10-2 each day, often staffed by volunteers working off a parking ticket who decide to stay because the work is rewarding.  There's that whole room full of clothing that's been sorted, washed, and dried.  All you need to do to "pay" for your clothing is to have your basket weighed and give them your postal code.  No money changes hands.  Donations are always welcome, so if you are cleaning out your closet, take your discarded clothes there. The weight and the postal code are put into software created by "Data for Good," which can help the Association produce reports that highlight their effectiveness and the community's needs. There's also a good-sized pantry with food, renewed every day by donations.  There are a couple of shelves stocked with things you might need for your kitchen or living room--a couple of glasses or a new lamp.  Everything is free.  

Their next phase is geared toward harm reduction.  They have a young woman whose summer job was to get familiar with the harm reduction ecosystem in Regina.  Otherwise, she'll just be hanging out in the stores so that when she is helping someone with food she can get to know them.  In a couple of months, that relationship might lead to a plea for help and she will know where the kind of help they want is available. Patience and human connections are the central resources for this program.

The Kitasoo Xai'xais Nation accomplished what the government had been too distracted to do.  They knew what the situation was like on the ground and what could be lost if they didn't act. They had the expertise and the philosophy of the circle of life that seldom comes into bureaucrats decisions. The Cathedral Community Association knew where there was space for trees and knew it could rustle up some volunteers.  The Al Ritchie Community Association has intimate knowledge of the community's needs and a plethora of creativity. 

Problem-solving is more targeted and more creative when it's done locally--beginning with you.  It's in a kind word.  It's in a garden.  It's there in a decision to eat less meat. Yes, it doesn't "scale up," but there's nothing to scale at all if you don't start.  And it would "scale up" more often, by way of inspiration, if media told more stories about it--hence my cranky response when I couldn't find the story about the Kitasoo Xai'xais Nation and their double award. And it's so beautiful, the moral beauty that rises from the care and good will and ingenuity, creating hope.